Comparisons Between the Holocaust and the Genocide of Falun Gong Practitioners in China

On April 20th Mr. Matas compared the persecution of two groups of people prior to the enactment of an ineffective law against organ harvesting in China.

On May 1st a new law meant to put an end to organ harvesting was supposed to be enacted in China and already experts have designated it to be ineffective. David Matas, a respected Canadian human rights attorney, together with David Kilgour, the former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia and Pacific Affairs, have collected evidence showing that China harvests organs from Falun Gong practitioners. Matas who is Jewish compared the dilemma of Falun Gong practitioners in China with that of the Jews during the Third Reich.

Mr. Matas listed several recognisable similarities, as well as differences. Obvious differences are the numbers of people killed. More than six million Jews were killed while there are only 3,000 confirmed deaths with Falun Gong. Of course, Matas thinks that the unconfirmed number may be higher because people have disappeared after their organs were harvested but he expects the final number to be lower than 6 million. He said that another difference is that the Chinese do not kill every Falun Gong practitioner; they will accept signed statements of renunciation of Falun Gong, whereas in Germany you couldn’t avoid being killed if you simply said that you didn’t want to be a Jew anymore. The third difference he pointed out was that although the Chinese reach everywhere with their Falun Gong persecution (e.g. they were able to get Russia to deport Falun Gong practitioners, and denied passports to Falun Gong practitioners in Hungary), they did not invade Hungary or Russia to kill Falun Gong practitioners who live there. The Germans did just that, they attacked other countries to kill Jews.

Similarities noted by Matas are the use of technology to the greatest possible effect. The Third Reich used a combination of the modern industrialised state and unbelievable brutality to kill Jews in a cruel war. This combination meant that the killing became very efficient because without, for example, radio it would have not been possible to communicate with large areas. On the other hand, China combines modern organ transplantation with the brutal suppression of Falun Gong. According to Matas, a difference with Nazi Germany is that the Germans kept records, which are easy to check. In contrast, communist China keeps no records about the persecution of the spiritual practice making it more difficult to prove it exists.

Mr. Matas further noted that the people’s reactions were also similar. When people heard about the holocaust for the first time, they tended to not believe it due to the extent and banality of the terror. He fears that we are experiencing the same with the organ harvesting, it is a novelty. It is not an old form of human rights violations, or an old version of evil, it is evil in a new disguise. He said that people tend to expect things with which they are already familiar. When a new thing arises, especially with those characteristics, a new brutality, they tend to not believe it. Mr. Matas mentioned that he grew up during the holocaust and that he finds the reactions to it very similar to what is happening in China. He reminisced that it was really difficult to believe the first stories about the holocaust.

Matas said that he is not including the propaganda methods in his list of similarities because all propaganda is the same to some degree and it therefore does not matter whether it is coming from China or the Third Reich.

Quoting Goebbels, Matas explained that propaganda requires a big lie, rather than a small one and that it has to be repeated often. Also, the propaganda has to be spread in an isolated environment where the lies can’t be exposed. All of these conditions are met in Communist China. He reminded everyone to not forget how quickly the Chinese government lies and that they don’t even speak about Falun Gong in China. They don’t deny that the organ harvesting is happening but they deny the Tiananmen Square massacre; they deny everything having to do with human rights violations. Matas stressed that he has often observed that they continuously repeat their lies.

One of his clients, a teacher in China, is able to testify to the isolated Chinese world view. He thinks that it is easy to influence Chinese opinion because of the censored media and the internet blockade.

Mr. Matas considers the people in China to be the true victims of the propaganda because it is difficult for them not to believe those lies and to find out for themselves what’s really happening. He wants to warn Falun Gong practitioners arrested in China that they are risking having their organs ripped out if they don’t tell their identity to the authorities. It is difficult to bring basic information in an out of China. He thinks that this is a general problem with any propaganda machine.

As part of his profession, Mr. Matas has worked for human rights since he was very young. He started to take action when he learned about the extent of the persecution of Falun Gong in China and also because almost nobody else was taking a stance against suppression in China. Although he has come in contact with the meditative group because of the persecution, he does not know much about Falun Gong itself. He has not even read a Falun Gong book. His attitude towards Falun Gong is similar to that against other spiritual groups: they have to be guaranteed freedom of belief.